Data is an integral part of your business. You use it to build marketing strategies, forge customer relationships, and much more. Losing important client and company information can be harmful to the health of your business. Here are backup solutions you should implement to ensure the safety of your data. It’s something we hope you never have to use but that you ideally test it on a frequent basis as part of your network maintenance.
Tape drives
Tape drives are the oldest backup solution still in use today because they offer high-capacity data storage and are very cost-effective. Modern tape drives come with 114 TB native capacity and 360 TB compressed capacity, which is larger compared to most hard disk drives.
In addition, well-maintained tape drives can store data for over 30 years. Other devices, such as hard drives, become less reliable overtime. Also, tape drives are stored offline, which means they’ll be safe should your business fall victim to an online attack.
The trade-off with tape drives is the length of time it takes to restore that data, if you need it now and perhaps only portions of the data then tape drives are not a good solution.
External hard drives
An external hard drive is a portable hard drive that can be connected to a desktop or laptop through a USB port. External hard drives come in varying storage capacities ranging from 1 TB to 18 TB.
For companies that can’t afford multiple servers or cloud storage, external hard drives are a cost-effective way of backing up valuable data. External hard drives are portable and let you access your files even when you’re offline.
When using external hard drives, however, you need to update your backups regularly to include new files. Also, there’s a risk these devices can be misplaced or stolen if they are not stored in a secure location. There is no option to mirror your network that includes all your software with an external hard drive so if you are only looking for a data backup then this may be a good solution.
USB drives
USB drives are an inexpensive and simple data backup solution. While they don’t have the capacity of external hard drives or tape drives, newer flash drives can store up to 1 TB of data, making them the ideal option if you’re not planning to store a huge amount of files. And because USB flash drives have a compact design, they are easy to carry around.
USB drives are compatible with both PC and Mac devices as long as they have a USB port. Modern ones are designed with transfer speeds of up to 4.8 GB per second. This allows you to copy files faster compared to hard drives which only have a transfer rate of 150 MB per second. The only drawback with USB drives is that they can be misplaced easily, so be sure to store them in a safe and secure place after use.
NAS
Network Attached Storage devices or NAS offer large storage capacities, network permissions, data redundancy with RAID configurations and relatively fast access. Considering what you can all do with a NAS, they are a reasonably priced backup solution. It is recommended to service a NAS on a regular basis to ensure that the enclosed hard drives have not failed.
Cloud storage
Cloud storage allows you to back up your data online. This reduces the need for physical storage, helping you cut down on hardware maintenance costs and office space. And since your data is stored online, you can access your files from anywhere with a stable internet connection. This makes file sharing easier, thus facilitating remote and hybrid setups, which became the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, most cloud providers offer encryption services to ensure only authorized personnel can access the stored data. Keep in mind, however, that there are still providers out there that do not have sufficient security protocols in place, exposing sensitive data to cyberthreats. So before you decide to use cloud storage, make sure the provider you choose is familiar with data regulation laws and uses the latest cybersecurity protocols to ensure the safety of your data.
Data backup may seem like a chore, but having copies of your files offline, off premises, or in the cloud will ensure the continuity of your business in the event of a disaster. Call our data backup experts today to learn more.
Dedicated Backup Appliance
The IT industry has dedicated backup appliances that focus on one thing, doing backups great. For example, a product like Datto will provide all the components that might have been overlooked like redundancy, speed, encryption, full restore to another location, disaster recovery, tamper warnings, cloud component with hardware appliance, customizable versioning and data retention and so much more. If you’re looking for a premium backup solution, Datto is a great starting point.
